Service Dog Serves as Best Man at Veteran’s Wedding

Gabe’s a little hairier than most guys who serve as the best man at weddings.

The 4-year-old Golden Retriever is not only a service dog for U.S. Army veteran Justin Lansford, but he also served as the best man and ring bearer when Lansford married his longtime girlfriend, Carol Balmes, during a ceremony Saturday at the Bayou Club in Largo, Fla.

“I was behind closed doors but from what I could hear, everyone said, ‘Aww,’ kind of simultaneously,” Balmes told Mashable regarding the wedding guests’ reactions to the furry best man.

At the reception afterward, Gabe “made his rounds of visiting all the tables,” Balmes said.

Wedding photographer Brad Hall told USA TODAY Gabe was one of the most cooperative bridal party members he’s ever worked with.

The best man was “easy, quite frankly, a lot easier than we typically see with groomsmen at most weddings,” Hall said.

While on tour in Afghanistan in 2012, Lansford lost his left leg in an IED explosion. Back at home, he was assigned to Gabe, a recent graduate of the nonprofit Warrior Canine Connection, which provides support dogs for wounded veterans to help them cope with injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“The less I use my wheelchair, the more I need his help in smaller tasks and the more he is there,” Lansford told ABC News in March 2014. “It has been very comforting to know that.

“He helps me with one thing to the next. I can use him as a stable surface to lean on, as I get to and from the ground. If I fall, he’ll come up running next to me and I can use him to push off of to get up off the ground.”

With Gabe at his side last year, Lansford proposed to his high-school sweetheart Balmes on — appropriately enough — Veteran’s Day.

To make a donation to help the Warrior Canine Connection train more support dogs, click here.

Photos via Twitter

Good Samaritans Save Elderly Man and Dog from SC Floodwaters

The so-called “1,000-year storm” — meaning a storm that has a 1-in-1,000 chance of occurring in one year — has devastated South Carolina, causing death and destruction.

Near Columbia, as much as 20 inches of rain fell over the weekend, CNN reports. That’s where 87-year-old George Osterhues of Ottawa, Canada, found himself Sunday during a road trip to Florida with Tila, his Yorkshire Terrier.

Osterhues had to take a detour off the flooded interstate and then became lost. He ended up on a country road that crosses a creek near a flood-prone lake. The creek was overflowing and flooding the road.

“Some people were turning around and I was trying to do the same thing, but I was already a little too far,” he told WSOCTV. For a couple of hours, he and Tila were trapped in their car in the raging floodwater.

Neither of them would likely have survived if Tom and Julie Hall, who live nearby, hadn’t been checking flooded roads for stranded people. Tom spotted Osterhues’ car.

“It was just about submerged,” he told the Charlotte Observer. Steadying himself with tree branches, he waded over to see if it was occupied.

“I saw some movement, and then he raised his hand and waved at me, and that kind of broke my heart because I knew at that point we had to go back and get him,” Tom told WSOCTV. Julie called 911 and ran back to the house to get rescue equipment and their teenage sons, Brice and Graham.

By this time the raging water was chest deep. Tom tried to reach the car using a canoe, but the current was too strong. Using trees and ropes, Tom was able to wade out to the car.

“The water was so strong he could hardly move and I couldn’t move either,” Osterhues told WSOCTV. He still managed to hold on to Tila.

Osterhaus, who was born in Germany, survived a Nazi death camp during World War II. When Tom reached his car, he told him that after all he’d been through, he was ready to die.

But Tom would have none of it. “No way was that man going to die out there,” he told the Charlotte Observer.

Osterhues was very calm, Tom told WSOCTV. “I begged him to leave the dog but he said the dog is going with us.”

Tom gave Osterhues a life jacket and pulled him and Tila out of a car window. Using ropes, it took an hour for the Hall family to tow Osterhues and Tila to higher ground.

Not only did the hero Hall family risk their lives saving Osterhues and Tila, but they offered to let them spend the night at their home. Julie’s physician father examined Osterhues to make sure he was okay (Tila was fine as well). The Halls even arranged for a rental car so Osterhues and Tila could continue their road trip.

“They already did too much for me,” Osterhues told WSOCTV. “They have a big family to take care of, and now me on top of that.”

How to Help Those Affected by the South Carolina Flooding

You can help people and pets displaced by the flooding by donating to the following non-profit organizations:

Photo via Twitter

Miss Daisy Driving: Watch a Dog Chauffeur a Little Boy [Video]

“Driving Miss Daisy?” Nope, this is “Miss Daisy Driving.”

Daisy, who looks like a West Highland Terrier mix, likes to give her young buddy Oliver a lift in a little red car. A video of the two is going viral, with more than 240,000 views as of this morning.

“Yes, the car is a remote-controlled car which I use to accelerate and stop (neither of them can reach the pedals… Haha),” writes their mom, Jessica Wolf, in the description of the video she posted on YouTube Sept. 30.

In response to doubters, Wolf wrote, “For your information, there is nothing fake about this video. The driver can override the remote by turning the wheel themselves. Daisy loves to stand on the car and move the wheel herself. If you notice, she mostly pushes to the left so the car drives to the left most of the time. So I sometimes will help move the wheel to the right in order to let her move it again to the left herself… and to help them avoid from hitting anything if it is needed.

“Yes, she is really steering it. Hope you enjoy!”

Whether or not you’re convinced it’s Daisy who’s really doing the driving, the video is definitely enjoyable.

Photo via YouTube

RECALL ALERT: K-9 Kraving Chicken Patties Raw Dog Food

Some K-9 Kraving Chicken Patties raw dog food sold in Maryland has been voluntarily recalled because it may be contaminated with both Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes.

The affected product was distributed to retail stores only in Maryland from July 13 to 17, 2015.

K-9 Kraving Dog Food became aware of the issue after it was notified by the FDA that a routine surveillance sample of the Chicken Patties product tested positive for Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes, according to a news release.

Salmonella can affect animals as well as people who handle the contaminated food. The symptoms for both people and animals include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramping and fever.

Listeria monocytogenes can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. The symptoms for both people and dogs include high fever, stiffness, nausea and diarrhea.

If you or your dog have any of these symptoms after touching or eating the recalled product, see a doctor or veterinarian.

If you bought the recalled product, stop feeding it to your dog. Consumers can obtain a full refund or exchange by either returning the product in its original packaging or bringing a proof of purchase to the store.

“At K-9 Kraving Dog Food, we take quality and safety very seriously,” said CEO Robert Barrett in the news release. “We believe that under all circumstances, health and safety comes first, and we are committed to providing the best possible nutrition for pets.”

According to the company’s website, “K-9 Kraving’s frozen raw dog foods are U.S.A. Made products, manufactured in Baltimore, Maryland from ingredients sourced fresh from within the United States* (fresh *Elk meat, fresh whole *Mackerel are imported from Canada).”

For more information about this recall, call the consumer relations team at 800-675-1471 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. EDT, Monday through Friday.

Photo via Facebook

Little French Bulldog Scares off 3 Bears [Video]

Jules may weigh only 20 pounds, but that didn’t stop the feisty French Bulldog from chasing three bears away from her family’s home in Monrovia, Calif., Friday afternoon.

“She wasn’t having it. You’re not coming into her property,” her dog dad, David Hernandez, told CBS Los Angeles.

“She blew me away. I couldn’t believe that she turned into a wolverine.”

Two young bears entered the Hernandez family’s front yard, while the mama bear climbed onto a balcony. Because of the California drought and a recent wildfire, bears have increasingly been leaving the San Gabriel Mountains to scavenge for food in hillside neighborhoods.

Surveillance videos captured Jules racing down the porch steps and jumping toward one of the bears. As that bear stands and pushes Jules away, the little dog jumps at the other bear. In another video, a bear can be seen scrambling to make a quick exit over a fence as Jules chased it.

Jules was given a special treat, extra kisses and a bath. (The best reward would be for the Hernandez family to ensure this is Jules’ first and last bear encounter.)

While Hernandez has taken precautions to keep bears away from his home, he said some of his neighbors have been leaving dog food out for them, and one woman even makes meatloaf for them. Feeding the starving bears may seem kind hearted but is actually a bad idea and against the law.

Hernandez said he feels safer in bear country than in the city.

“You could have drive-bys or you can have bears,” he told CBS Los Angeles. “What’s it going to be? For me I’ll choose the wildlife, but just don’t feed them.”

It’s not unusual for little dogs to scare off much larger wildlife. In August, a Jack Russell Terrier and Yorkshire Terrier made headlines when the little dogs chased away grizzly and black bears.

Photos via YouTube

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